GE Nautilus dishwasher won't hold water

I have a two year old GE Nautilus dishwasher (bottom of the line, installed by the homebuilder), model GSD2200G00CC.

I ran it through a cycle the other night and after opening the door, found the dishes were still dirty and the detergent tablet was on the floor of the tub, half dissolved. I removed the access panel and started the dishwasher to observe what was happening.

The dishwasher begins to fill with water as it normally would (I can hear the fill valve opening, water running into the tub, and beginning to slosh around in there). However, instead of filling for 30-40 seconds and continuing with the wash cycle as it normally would, after about 10 seconds of filling I hear (and see) what appears to be the drain valve open, and the water drains from the dishwasher into the disposal. This cycle seems to repeat itself, so the tub is never filling up with water to wash the dishes with.

The various troubleshooting steps I've found online say what would cause the dishwasher not to fill, or not to drain, but it appears mine is doing each of these - just a little too soon after one another. I checked the float and the drain trap, and nothing appears to be interfering with either. No kinks in either the drain or the supply line, either.

I have attached a picture of the valve I can hear and see moving when the dishwasher begins to drain (to the left of the motor); I believe this is the drain valve/solenoid?

Why is it opening so soon after filling begins? Any idea what the trouble could be?

What you need to do is pull the electrical connector loose from the soleniod then run the dishwasher again.

If with the power wires disconnected it still does the same thing then you will be needing to replace the pump/motor assembly, (if the drain flapper valve, rubber cover, gets deformed is will not seal correctly and the water pressure will close the valve without the power even needing to be on to the solenoid.

What you need to do is pull the electrical connector loose from the soleniod then run the dishwasher again.

If with the power wires disconnected it still does the same thing then you will be needing to replace the pump/motor assembly, (if the drain flapper valve, rubber cover, gets deformed is will not seal correctly and the water pressure will close the valve without the power even needing to be on to the solenoid.

That's gotta be it. I removed the connector from the solenoid and soon after the dishwasher started to fill, the drain valve would kick and the water would drain out.

I'm just going to replace the dishwasher, putting the money a new pump/motor would cost toward a better, nicer, quieter unit. Something other than a GE, after reading through this forum...

I had the same problem. Turned out to be a bad (burnt) drain solenoid.

Took a while to diagnose, however. At first I checked for movement of the solenoid arm mechanism that opens and closes the drain. Yes, there was some movement, so I assumed it was not the problem.

Unfortunately, the movement was only about 1/4 - 1/2 inch or so. Turns out the solenoid was burnt and had frozen the armature in place, leaving the drain in the "OPEN" position.

Suggestion to the Moderators that in the future your advice should mention the fact that there should be about one inch of play - any less may indicate the frozen armature condition I faced.

I also want to mention how GRATEFUL I am for this forum. Thanks so much!!

And to the rest of you fellow Grasshoppers - PAY ATTENTION TO THE SAMURAI APPLIANCE REPAIR MAN! WHEN HE TELLS YOU TO DO SOMETHING....DO IT! In my case it was listening to the SAMURAI APPLIANCE REPAIR MAN when he mentioned something about how every Do-it-Yourselfer needs a multimeter .........without one you are just goofing around.

He was right, of course. I finally spent all of about $15.00 on a basic multimeter and a spent a little time futzing around learning how to use it. Without it I would NOT have been able to diagnose the problem.

Hummm, guess we better start doing what the Grasshoppers tell us to do Samurai? Guess we are lax in helping....so we also better let them know the coil got hot and melted because the timer stalled too long in the drain cycle, so if the timer is not replaced it will melt the new coil..

So let me get this straight. GE made money when they sold this machine. And now GE stands to make more money selling 2 more expensive parts to this grasshopper It's almost as if they have turned selling inferior products into a profitable business.

Didn't mean to imply you were lax in helping......anything but! Just a little feedback to add to your encyclopedic knowledge base here.

As to the timer... my first response was one of . Just wondering .....but could it have been anything else that fried the coil? I understand we get a lot of funky electrical spikes and whatnot here in SoCal.

Even if I were to pop in a new timer I guess I would still be way ahead of the game. Timer is around $58.00 I think. So far I am in it for $40.00 for the new coil. (Plus the $21.00 I paid for the water inlet valve I did not need but replaced anyway back in my pre-multimeter days when I was a mere Monkey-Boy and thought that replacing the first and easiest part to reach just HAD to be the solution to my problem.)

BTW - I am running a GE GSD3630Z00 that the builder installed 8 years and 4 months ago. It doesn't get THAT much use - just the wife and I - so I suppose I run it on order of twice a week.

[user=533]Pegi[/user] wrote:

Hummm, guess we better start doing what the Grasshoppers tell us to do Samurai? Guess we are lax in helping....so we also better let them know the coil got hot and melted because the timer stalled too long in the drain cycle, so if the timer is not replaced it will melt the new coil..

ALRIGHT!!!! Finally I find my exact problem! Recently I have been finding the exact same issue of running the dishwasher, and at the end of the cycle having dirty dishes and a partially dissolved soap pellet in the bottom of the washer. Through watching it several times, it appears that it is filling, but like the other washers on this topic, the drain seems to still be open, AT TIMES. Sometimes the washer is fine. I found for a while that I could put it on 'short wash' instead of the entire cycle and it would be fine, but now I am finding that it still has the same issue.

SO, based upon the above posts, you are saying that it could be the timer or the drain solenoid. If the over draining issue is still intermittent (still works sometimes but getting fewer and far between), would it be the timer? Like the others, this is an older dishwasher, and I wouldn't mind getting a new one, but if I can fix it for under $100 bucks, I'd do it for now.

GE Profile QuietPower Plus
Model # GSD4030Y73WW
Unknown age

Also, taking a look at the RepairClinic.com, there are two timers listed for this washer, part number 271762 for 72 bucks and part number 271763 for 93 bucks. Which one would I need to replace? It isn't very clear.